MNO Blog – Motorcycles, News, Opinions

(Melbourne, Florida) Billy Lane, the media and the court waited for the scheduled 2:30 hearing toady at the Brevard County court house in Viera, Florida. Just as the judge asked the court bailiff to have someone call the office of Lane’s attorney, Greg Eisenmenger, 10 minutes late Eisenmenger and assistant attorney Robert Berry entered the court room.

The court asked for a pretrial conference today to gain an idea on the exact status of the criminal DUI Manslaughter case that Choppers Inc. owner and custom motorcycle builder Billy Lane still faces since his arrest on September 25th of last year. After accepting apologies from  Defense attorney Gregory Eisenmenger for his being late, Judge Allawas asked both attorneys to report on the status of the case. Eisenmenger told the court that his expert witness was not able to view the blood work taken from Lane after the crash that killed Sebastian park ranger, Gerald Morelock on September 4th 2006. The blood work was sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement crime lab and showed a blood alcohol level of .192 for Billy Lane which lead to the charges he now faces. Attorney Eisenmenger said that he expects his expert witness to view the blood work by the 31st of this month and will know then in what form he will file new motions to suppress the evidence. Eisenmenger stated that he intends to file a motion to suppress the blood work evidence either way, but the findings of his expert witness will have an effect on how it will be filed. The court set a target date of September 28th for those motions to be filed.

State attorney Mike Brown stated that he anticipated filing motions as well depending on motions filed by the defense and asked that he be notified as to the name of the expert witness and his qualifications. Billy Lane’s attorney added that after his expert witness completes his findings he would be ready for trial within 4 to 6 weeks and said that he feels the trial should be scheduled to take 8 to 10 days to be heard.

After hearing the status of the case from both sides Judge Allawas stated that she expected the case to be set for trial near the first of next year, very close to the first she added.

Next pretrial conference is set for October 10th at 9:00 a.m. 

Technorati Tags: billy lane, choppers inc, court, dui, hearing, melbourne florida, motorcycle news

(Melbourne, Florida)  After hours of mediation between the family of Gerald Morelock with Billy Lane and attorneys for DaimlerChrysler, an out of court settlement has been negotiated. The civil action was filed in October of 2006 by June Morelock, the mother of Gerald Morelock against William D. Lane and Daimler Chrysler for the wrongful death of her son. Attorneys for all parties met with a mediator for hours on Monday with Billy Lane and the Morelock family all present. The case is now closed and a settlement has been reached between the parties for a undisclosed amount .

 Billy Lane is still facing criminal charges for DUI Manslaughter, but the civil action against him and Dodge has ended in agreement. Lane’s criminal charges for DUI Manslaughter are still pending with the next scheduled hearing date of August 17 at the Brevard county court house in Viera Florida.

Byron Morelock, the brother of Gerald Morelock, the man killed by Billy Lane in the September 4, 2006 crash has released the following statement:

The Morelock family and Billy Lane / Daimler have come to an agreement. We would like to personally show our gratitude and heartfilled thanks to all of the people thru-out the nation that have showed us their support , love and caring. My family may not have made it through these hard times if it wasn’t for your caring and sympathy. Our tragedy has opened up a ground swell of emotions to say the least. We are just one, of too many families that have been forced into a regrettable situation. I once said that everyone loses in these situations……..although we lost Gerry, who was my best friend and big brother, It seems that I have found so many other ” brothers.” Men and woman that have taken time out of their lives to help us in many ways. They never have met us but opened up their hearts and souls to us .Gerry always said that I looked at the cup half “full”. With all the love shown to us by so many……our cup is slowly but surely filling up !! Please stay in touch with us. Let’s try and turn our tragedy into something good.

With true sincerity, Byron , Seany, June,Dawn & Chelsey Morelock

 More to come as I get the facts with more pictures and interviews coming.

Technorati Tags: billy lane, court, dui, florida, law, legal, melbourne, motorcycle news, wrongful death

Viera, Florida - The DUI Manslaughter charges held against Melbourne custom motorcycle builder Billy Lane remain pending after his case went before Judge Allawas this morning during the 9:00 calendar call.

Robert Berry of  the law firm Eisenmenger Berry & Peters, P.A, was present to represent and speak on behalf of  Defendant, William D. Lane, who was not present. Robert Berry asked the court to continue the case stating that he and assistant State Attorney, Mike Brown were working diligently on trying to clear some questions surrounding the blood work. You may recall, that the blood work Mr. Barry has mentioned was taken from Billy Lane at the hospital over 45 minutes after the crash happened that took the life of 56 year old Gerald Morelock of Melbourne Beach, Florida back on September 4, 2006.

The blood was sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement crime lab and it was determined that Billy Lane had a blood alcohol content of .192 at the time the blood was drawn. Lane was later charged with DUI Manslaughter and could face up to 15 years imprisonment by Florida State law. The Judge granted the continuance and set the next date for docket sounding of September 21, 2007 which will exceed a year since the date of the crash. State Attorney Mike Brown had told me that these type of cases typically take around 18 months to complete the process.

Technorati Tags: billy lane, DUI, drunk driving, florida, melbourne, motorcycle news, law, court

Paris Hilton, by way of one of her myspace pals has started a online petition to be pardoned so that she will not have to do jail time.

The story of Paris Hilton being arrested for DUI was no different from other Hollywood celebrities, except there seemed to be a rash of them in one month. Today I read a story about how Schwarzenegger ‘Too Busy’ to Bother with Paris on Hollywood.Com that tells of the petition to pardon Ms. Hilton and how the California Governor has distanced himself from the case.

This petition, called the FREE PARIS HILTON PETITION  is addressed to Arnold Schwarzenegger calling her DUI a “honest mistake”.  She was sentenced to 45 days in jail for breaking the terms of that DUI and driving on a suspended license, that was no mistake. One day Ms. Hilton is claiming she is ready to face the consequences of her DUI and later asking for a pardon. Her lawyers have already filed an appeal of the sentencing on her behalf. Question is, why was she not taken to jail then? Paris Hilton is to report to jail on June 5th with a appeal and online petition in progress. Paris stated that she is not above the law in  the same interview, yet was photographed driving only a few days after her sentencing.

I have to wonder just how many will actually sign such a petition. Moreover, how many of those who do sign will regret they did when someone close to them is hurt or killed by someone driving impaired or on a suspended license. Realistically, how valid would a petition like this be? Given that the petition originates from a myspace account and there is no entry for age or voter verification.

Here is an interesting outlook by Attorney Alan Dershowitz about celebrity injustice entitled Star cases put our entire legal system on trial. It will be interesting to see how this all pans out.

Technorati Tags: celebrity injustice, dui, dwi, hollywood, law, paris hilton

I have to admit, I do not watch much television, I listen, but seldom watch. Tonight was one of the times for me to watch with the first airing of Motorcycle Mania 4 on TLC. Commercials, wow! Cindi commented on how there was so many of them. My answer to her, “would you rather pay to see this, or let them pay”? So with that said, in the review of tonight’s show, I will include our top picks of use of air time to pay the bills.

With just the opening few seconds of the show, I was ready to go back to Daytona Beach and do bike week again. Working during these events takes from a lot of the fun, but hey, its still a great job. One of the best things about watching Motorcycle Mania tonight was that it was filmed during bike week and watching the show was exciting for that reason.

For those of you that watched the show tonight, I am sure you could see how busy custom motorcycle builder Russell Mitchell was during the live build. However, Russell, like many other celebrity builders will almost always take the time out to talk to fans. It was a pleasure to speak with and meet Russell in Daytona. Speaking of fans, one of the highlights of  the show tonight was watching Russell autograph a fans head. This was not a normal autograph though, this was done in the form of a tattoo. Though Russell claimed that he had not been on the controlling end of the tattoo gun before, he did an excellent job of signing the guys head for life.

Unfortunately, I was not present during any of the time that John Mellencamp was around, I would of like to have met him as well. He seems to have settled down in the years past. I remember seeing him live in Orlando back in the seventies where he racked up thousands of dollars in fines for using prohibited language on stage. I expected to hear more of John’s music, but was satisfied to see him do a unplugged version of “Pink Houses” during the presentation of his original Exile Cycles Mellencamp Rigid.

First good commercial goes out to the TLC reality show Real Deal where Richard Davis is trying to teach some bikers how to make money in real estate by fixing up houses. He leads in to a statement about drinking and … a guy holds up a nail gun and continues driving nails. Then a guy sitting in the class with hair standing straight up ask how long it will take for a persons smell to come back after working on a socket that the electrician left live.

Russell and the guys from Exile Cycles get ready to start the build and once they seem to have everything in place and ready to go, Russell announces that they do not have a full bottle of the gun blue stain to start the frame. Now, it appears that he will only have four days to finish the bike, were it was originally planned he would have five. No sweat, right?

Next good commercial was done by BMW motorcycles. The entire commercial was free of words and was composed of motorcycle stunt video footage. Great commercial to get your point across without saying anything.

Back to the show where Iraq war hero, Capt. David Haigh is presented a custom motorcycle built by chopper builder Bill Dodge with the help of Paul Cox and Keino. The custom motorcycle was given to him on the Hard Rock Roadhouse stage were he got to see it for the first time. I was not around during the presentation, but my hat goes off to Bill Dodge and his sponsors for showing their support for Capt. Haigh and our troops in Iraq.

Thanks goes out to Amour All for the next commercial that made us laugh while the Bud Light commercial was, well not so funny. Back to the show and the final day of the build. Russell completes the wiring on Mellencamp’s bike and wants to hear it run before he calls it a day. The crew gets the bike gassed up and ready, and with a final check, Russell touches two wires together and the engine fires right up. Next up, Russell celebrates by doing a burnout that heats the exhaust pipes up cherry red and draws the attention of the Daytona Police. NAPA auto parts follows up with a commercial full of hot rod burn outs without the cops.

The ending scenes of the show are of Russell and John riding around the Daytona loop and up Highway A1A with John Mellencamp’s new song Freedom Road playing. It was a pretty good show with too many commercial interruptions that remind me of why I do not sit in front of the television to often. It was cool to see all of the bike week happenings on TV, but I would rather live it.

Technorati Tags: exile cycles, motorcycles, bike week, television, motorcycle mania

Russell Mitchel of Exile Cycles had only 5 days to complete a custom motorcycle build for singer/song writer John Mellencamp for tonight’s premiere airing of Motorcycle Mania 4 on TLC and he did it on Main Street, Daytona Beach during Bike Week 2007.

Once completed, the motorcycle built by Mitchell is presented to John Mellencamp during bike week. Russell Mitchell and John Mellencamp go for a ride together after the bike is presented on the final Friday of bike week 2007.

Motorcycle Mania is produced by Hugh “Chopper” King who also produces The Great Biker Build-Off series. While Russell was building a custom motorcycle on Main Street, Hugh King was out and about filming other bike week events in the Daytona Beach area. We spotted Hugh filming during the women’s cole slaw wrestling at the cabbage patch bar in Samsula, Florida.

Be sure to check your local television listings for the correct time and channel in your area for tonight’s episode of Motorcycle Mania 4.

Technorati Tags: hugh king, john mellencamp, motorcycle mania, motorcycle news, motorcycles, russell mitchell, television, tlc, motorcycle news

Viera, Florida – Attorney for chopper builder Billy Lane was to appear in court today and present his “Motion To Withdraw” to Judge Allawas, but Mr. Funk was not present at today’s 9:00 am calendar call at the Moore Justice Center in Viera.

Melbourne based attorney Kepler Funk has been one of the attorneys handling the defense in the criminal case against Choppers Inc. owner Billy Lane. Lane originally faced three felony charges stemming from a labor day crash that left Gerald Morelock, 56 of Melbourne Beach dead. Lane and female passenger, Erin Derrick were hospitalized, but treated for injuries and later released.

Lane was driving a 2006 Dodge pickup promotional vehicle loaned to him by the DaimlerChrysler Corporation while attempting to pass three vehicles in a no pass zone and hit Morelock head on killing him instantly. It was later determined that had been drinking and had a blood alcohol content of .192 and he was charged with DUI Manslaughter. The other two original charges were dropped by the State of Florida back in November of 2006. Mr. Morelock autopsy report revealed that he had a BAC of .133, but witnesses have stated that he was driving correctly when Lane hit him.

Mr. Funk was expected to make his motion to withdraw today because of a conflict of interest, however Judge Allawas stated that there was also a calendar call scheduled for Monday, April 16 and she would hear all motions then.

Attorney Robert Barry from the newly appointed law firm of Eisenmenger, Barry and Peters stated that he was only present as an observer today. Billy Lane added  Attorney Gregory Eisenmenger back in January of this year. I contacted Mr. Funk in January and he stated that both he and Mr. Eisenmenger were handling Mr. Lane’s Criminal case at that time.

Mr. Eisenmenger was not present in court today, however you may recall that he recently appeared for a hearing in the ongoing civil case filed by the mother of Gerald Morelock against Dodge and Lane for the wrongful death of her son. The civil trial is currently seeing a lot of document traffic, but no court appearance has been scheduled at this time. Judge Moxley had set a date for August for the trial to be heard.

Technorati Tags: billy lane, criminal court, dodge, dui, florida, melbourne, motorcycle news, news, viera

Billy Lane’s new criminal attorney, Gregory Eisenmenger was present at the 4:15 pm hearing in the civil case filed against Billy Lane and DaimlerChrysler for the wrongful death of Gerald Morelock. Mr. Eisenmenger announced to the court that he was sitting in today because “ today’s hearing touches on advice I have given my client in the criminal case” and “I am here to help answer questions and advise”.

In fact, no questions were answered. The reason for today’s hearing was whether the questions would be answered or not. Also present today, by telephone, Sammy Cacciatore and Sam Cacciatore for plaintiff Dolores Morelock and Jefferey Vernis for Billy Lane. William McCandless, attorney for DaimlerChrysler was on the conference call as well.

Attorney Sam Cacciatore, filed a request for admissions with the court, asking Billy Lane to answer questions that could shorten the civil hearing time in court. Billy Lane’s civil and criminal attorneys agreed that it was in Billy Lane’s best interest to invoke the 5^th amendment and not answer the questions because the criminal trial for DUI Manslaughter against Lane was still on-going. Questions pertaining to venue, such as time, date and place were under objection. Criminal attorney Eisenmenger stated that it was up to the State of Florida to prove that the crash happened, adding that they must also prove where and when, along with the identity of the deceadant, Gerald Morelock in the criminal case against Lane. Eisenmenger later added that answering these questions could be extremely damaging to his client with the criminal charges still pending.

Most of the objections to the questions were sustained by Judge Moxley, as they were read to the court one by one. These questions will all be presented in a later article here on this blog. Judge Moxley did overrule on a few of the objectionable questions. Cacciatore had requested that Billy Lane produce all documents pertaining to any type of lease agreement that he had with Dodge for the Dodge Ram pickup that he was driving the night of the crash. In response, civil attorney Vernis stated that there was no written agreement between Dodge and Billy Lane for the promotional vehicles that Lane had in his possession and control. Vernis called the question very broad for the plaintiffs to ask for any and all documents.

Objections were heard from both of Billy Lane’s attorneys when questions were asked about Erin Derrick, the female passenger with Billy Lane on the night of the crash. Attorney Sam Cacciatore said “ we have no idea what the relationship was” between Billy Lane and Erin Derrick. Eisenmenger, said that Ms. Derrick could be a link in the chain of evidence for the criminal case and had advised Lane not to answer. It was determined by the court that Lane would have to answer the question regarding his driving history by listing all traffic citations prior to the Labor Day crash. I asked attorney Greg Eisenmenger how he felt about the decisions. Eisenmenger stated “ I think the judge ruled appropriately in all respects.

I will elaborate as to all of the questions in a full article tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: billy lane, motorcycle news, blog, dui, trial, court, florida, celebrity news

I guess one of the biggest draws to the famed Daytona Beach’s Main Street during bike week is for the cruising. Whether you choose to walk or ride this strip of bars, shops and restaurants that are packed along Main Street beginning at S. Peninsula Dr. that continues up to Ocean Ave., it is a people watching safari. Two and three wheeled vehicles of all shapes and sizes and covered with everything imaginable will appear on this strip at least once during the ten day Florida Motorcycle Event. Men and women from all over the world will visit Main Street to shop, eat and drink will checking out the masses that migrate to Daytona Beach annually for bike week.

Wet T shirt and bikini contest are almost an hourly event as the bars attempt to draw in thirsty spectators. Beer Tub Babes, half naked, draw the eye of people passing by while every cell phone with a camera is in hand to grab a shot to bring home as a souvenir of the visit to Daytona Beach, Florida.

The motorcycle industries top names also appear in this area. I was lucky enough to catch custom motorcycle builder Russell Mitchell of Exile Cycles working on a build at Automatic Slim’s on Main Street next to Dirty Harry’s saloon. The bike Russell is working on was to be presented to John Mellencamp and will be featured in Motorcycle Mania 4 to be aired in April.

With all the things to see on Main Street, the number 1 attraction? Babes. Biker Babes, Beer-Tub Babes, babes in chaps and bikini babes.

There is always plenty of great looking eye candy on the strip in Daytona.

More Bike Week Babes on my Bike Week Daytona web site.

Technorati Tags: bike week, motorcycle news, daytona beach, florida, motorcycle events

A recent article in Florida Today “breaking news” section seems to stirred up old news in the Billy Lane DUI Manslaughter case. The article entitled Lane scheduled for court appearance reports that two of the three charges Lane faced were dropped. The story seems to have spawned from an earlier report on February 23 by WFTV channel 9, Orlando reporting Two Charges Dropped Against Celebrity Motorcycle Builder. This is nothing new in the case and most that have been following the Billy Lane cases know that this happened months ago.

What caught my eye in the story was the date of March 16 being reported as scheduled for next appearance. Because I was present during the last docket sounding on February 2 and reported the next court date to be March 23, 2007, I wanted to know why the date had been changed. It appears that there was a clerical error made on all of the cases from the February 2nd docket setting them for the next date of March 23rd. When the error had been discovered in the conflicting dates, notices were sent out to all parties notifying them of the new date set to March 16th.

Aside the criminal case for DUI manslaughter Lane faces, there is a pending civil suit against Billy Lane and ChryslerDaimler for the wrongful death of victim Gerald Morelock. Billy Lane was driving a promotional vehicle owned by Dodge on the night of September 4th that struck and killed Morelock while attempting to pass 3 vehicles in a double yellow no passing zone along Highway A1A in Melbourne Beach.

Source:

http://www.wftv.com/news/11094035/detail.html

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070224/BREAKINGNEWS/70224004

Technorati Tags: motorcycle news, dui, billy lane, daimlerchrysler, court, law, melbourne, florida, brevard county